NRLF 


G331 
.5 

G5 


THE 


SHEFFIELD   SCIENTIFIC   SCHOOL 


OF  YALE  UNIVERSITY 


A  SEMI-CENTENNIAL  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE 


OCTOBER  28,   1897 


BY  DANIEL  C. /OILMAN 

L.    "•-» 

Sometime  an  officer  of  the  School  and  now  Tresident  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University 


NEW  HAVEN 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SHEFFIELD  SCIENTIFIC  SCHOOL 
1897 


THE 


SHEFFIELD   SCIENTIFIC   SCHOOL 


OF  YALE  UNIVERSITY 


A  SEMI-CENTENNIAL  HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE 


OCTOBER  28,  1897 


BY  DANIEL  C.  OILMAN 
q 

Sometime  an  officer  of  the  School  and  now  Tresident  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University 


NEW  HAVEN 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SHEFFIELD  SCIENTIFIC  SCHOOL 
1897 


I  SHOULD  BE  THE  LAST  TO  FORGET  OB  DISPARAGE  THE  SERVICES 
OF  UNKNOWN  BENEFACTORS.  THESE  HAVE  IN  A  LARGE  DEGREE 
MADE  LIFE  FOR  US  WHAT  IT  IS.  THESE  HAVE  THEIR  OWN  COM- 
MEMORATION WHEN  WE  RECALL  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  AGES. 

BUT  THERE  ARE  OTHERS  WHO  STAND  OUT  AS  LEADERS,  AS  REPRE- 
SENTATIVES. GIFTS,  LABOURS,  THOUGHTS  OF  DISTINGUISHABLE 
ANCESTORS  GO  TO  SWELL  OUR  SPIRITUAL  PATRIMONY.  IT  MAY 
HAVE  BEEN  BY  SOME  CONSPICUOUS  WORK  WHICH  WAS  NOBLY 
SPREAD  OVER  A  LIFETIME  ;  IT  MAY  HAVE  BEEN  BY  SOME  SWEET 
TRAIT  WHICH  WAS  JUST  SEEN  IN  A  CRISIS  OF  TRIAL;  BUT  "  HERE 
AND  THERE  "  THEY  HAVE  HELPED  US,  AND  IF  WE  ARE  TO  ENJOY 
THE  FULNESS  OF  THEIR  SERVICE,  WE  MUST  SOLEMNLY  RECALL  IT. 

IN  DOING  THIS  WE  ARROGATE  TO  OURSELVES  NO  AUTHORITY  OF 
FINAL  JUDGMENT  BY  GRATEFUL  CELEBRATION. 

— Bishop  Westcott. 


•   •    •  •  •  •  *•• 

•      •••••• 


Press  of  The  Friedenwald  Company,  Baltimore,  Md. 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS 


This  is  the  hour  for  congratulation  and  recollections. 
It  is  our  privilege  to  look  backward  over  the  path  of 
half  a  century  and  to  trace  the  steps,  often  slow  but 
never  devious,  by  which  the  penniless,  nameless  and 
homeless  offspring  of  an  ancient  and  vigorous  stock  has 
attained  commanding  influence,  rich  in  possessions,  be- 
loved by  thousands  of  followers,  honored  wherever 
known,  and  still  with  the  fresh  enthusiasm  of  youth, 
aiming  at  lofty  ideals,  attractive  as  the  face  of  nature, 
varied  and  comprehensive  as  the  laws  by  which  this 
world  is  governed. 

It  would  be  easy,  and  it  might  be  profitable,  to 
engage  in  an  exclusive  commemoration  of  those  who 
have  made  this  institution,  and  to  bring  forward  rem- 
iniscences of  incidents  and  events — some  of  them  truly 
romantic — which  illustrate  the  progress  of  its  remark- 
able life;  yet  the  dignity  of  this  assembly,  the  presence 
of  so  many  persons  from  a  distance,  and  the  relation 
of  the  Sheffield  School  to  higher  education  in  the 
United  States  forbid  such  limitations.  You  must  there- 
fore permit  me  to  give  a  subordinate  place  to  those  sen- 
timents which  are  uppermost  in  our  hearts — congratu- 
lations mingled  with  affection  and  gratitude,  and  with 
vivid  memories  of  those  who  have  departed — while  I 

3 


M116551 


try  to  do  justice  to  their  wise  and  assiduous  labors  by 
showing  their  relation  to  the  times  and  to  the  progress 
of  science  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

If  the  Antiquary  should  now  appear,  you  would  be 
sure  to  remember  that  his  task  had  already  been  well 
performed;  and  if  I  should  assume  the  garb  and  chisel 
of  Old  Mortality,  you  might  remind  me  that  the  moss 
has  not  yet  gathered  upon  the  inscriptions  in  yonder 
cemetery.  While  Argus  and  Briareus,  the  one  for  the 
University  and  the  other  for  the  School  of  Science,  are 
on  the  alert,  it  requires  some  assurance  to  traverse  the 
annals  which  they  have  collected;  and  yet  this  discourse 
must  be  historical.  So  in  face  of  difficulties,  en- 
hanced by  the  distance  which  has  separated  the  speaker 
from  these  once  familiar  scenes,  from  muniments  and 
archives,  I  enter  upon  the  duty  of  the  hour,  conscious 
of  the  honor  received  from  your  courtesy  and  grateful 
for  an  opportunity  to  stand  once  more  among  former 
colleagues,  pupils  and  friends. 

To  a  returning  wanderer,  it  is  a  delight  to  see 
this  favored  university  renewing  its  youth,  at  the 
approach  of  its  second  centennial  anniversary — more 
comprehensive,  more  useful,  more  liberal  and  more 
worthy  than  ever  before  of  loyal  affection  and  support. 

Eighteen  hundred  and  forty-seven  is  the  year  of  our 
nativity.  But  there  was  a  pre-natal  existence  worth 
remembering.  Truly,  Yale  College  has  always  stood  for 
Science,  and  therefore  it  is  no  wonder  that  those  who 
initiated  the  department  of  Philosophy  and  the  Arts, 
just  after  President  Woolsey  assumed  the  chair,  had 
faint  notions  of  the  importance  of  their  proceedings. 
They  were  quite  unconscious  of  developing  new  forces. 

4 


Mr.  Bryce,  in  his  sketch  of  the  Holy  Eoman  Empire, 
remarks  that  the  year  A.  D.  476,  which  schoolboys  are 
taught  as  one  of  the  most  important  dates  in  every- 
body's chronology — the  downfall  of  the  Koman  Empire 
— was  no  such  date  to  those  then  living  as  it  has  since 
become,  nor  was  any  impression  made  on  men's  minds 
commensurate  with  the  real  significance  of  the  event. 
So  it  is  in  our  academic  chronology.  As  conclusive 
evidence,  recur  to  this  modest  announcement  originally 
made  in  the  Catalogue  of  1847:  \/ 

"  It  has  long  been  felt  at  Yale  College  to  be  im- 
portant to  furnish  resident  graduates  and  others  with 
the  opportunity  of  devoting  themselves  to  special 
branches  of  study,  either  not  provided  for  at  present,  or 
not  pursued  as  far  as  individual  students  may  desire." 
Accordingly  the  department  of  Philosophy  and  Arts  is 
established.  By  this  simple  decree  the  system  of  grad- 
uate studies  now  in  vogue  throughout  the  land  was 
formally  inaugurated.  Moreover  an  inconspicuous  post- 
script states  that  "  Professors  Silliman  and  Norton  have 
opened  a  laboratory  on  the  College  grounds  for  the 
purpose  of  practical  instruction  in  the  applications  of 
science  to  the  arts  and  agriculture." 

Thus  was  born  the  Sheffield  School,  with  the  inheri- 
tance of  an  opportunity,  a  desire,  a  hope  and  a  belief, 
supported  by  an  empty  purse  and  slight  expectations. 

"  That  primal  age  which  did  as  gold  excel 
Seasoned  its  acorns  with  keen  appetite 
And  thirst  to  nectar  turned  each  springing  well." 

To  illustrate  the  evolution  of  this  idea,  then  first  pro- 
duced among  us,  to  show  what  ingredients  it  included, 

5 


what  unexpected  nurture  it  received,  what  storm  and 
stress  it  survived;  especially  to  show  that  this  idea  was 
planted  in  fertile  soil  by  the  spirit  of  our  age,  the  Zeit- 
geist, believing  and  delighting  in  the  study  of  nature 
and  her  laws,  we  must  consider  the  state  of  mankind  in 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the  conditions 
of  liberal  education  then  prevalent  in  the  United  States 
and  England.  No  milestone  marks  the  transition  from 
the  old  to  the  new,  yet  the  older  men  in  this  assembly 
are  conscious  that  this  is  a  very  different  state  of 
society  from  that  of  1847.  The  education,  the  creeds, 
the  industries,  the  commerce,  and  of  course  the  science 
and  the  arts  of  civilized  countries  are  changed.  This 
is  a  freer,  busier,  wealthier,  more  complex,  and  indeed 
a  wiser  and  happier  world  than  that  of  our  fathers — 
before  the  gold  of  California  and  Australia  and  the 
diamonds  of  South  Africa  had  been  discovered,  or  the 
magic  spark,  flashing  over  land  and  sea,  had  transformed 
the  usages  of  domestic  life  and  the  processes  of  inter- 
national intercourse;  or  the  life-giving  agencies,  the 
heaven-sent  blessings  of  anaesthesia  and  antisepsis,  had 
removed  from  the  bed  of  pain,  apprehension  and  dis- 
tress. 

It  was  the  middle  of  this  century  when  the  doctrine 
of  evolution,  which  has  pervaded  every  branch  of  nat- 
ural history,  and  extended  its  influence  to  medicine, 
anthropology,  sociology  and  history,  was  publicly  set 
/j         forth,  a  period,  as  a  recent  historian  has  shown,  in  which 
a  doctrine  that  may  be  traced  to  Empedocles,  Heraclitus 
and  Aristotle,  found  "  its  perfect  expression "  in  the 
writings  of  Charles  Darwin.     On  the  evening  of  July  1, 
1858,  a  day  almost  as  memorable  as  that  when  the 
6 


island  of  Guanahani  was  revealed  to  Columbus,  the 
epoch-making  papers  of  Darwin  and  Wallace  were  read 
to  the  Linnaean  Society  of  London;  but  it  should  not 
be  forgotten  that,  sixteen  years  before,  Darwin  had 
written  out  a  sketch  of  the  Origin  of  Species,  and  with 
wonderful  self-control  had  kept  it  in  his  portfolio  while 
he  gave  eight  patient  years  to  the  study  of  barnacles. 
We  have  the  authority  of  Sir  Archibald  Geikie  for  say- 
ing that  the  two  geological  chapters  in  the  Origin  of 
Species  produced  the  greatest  revolution  in  geological 
thought  which  has  occurred  in  our  time.  It  was  in 
1860,  when  Herbert  Spencer  announced  the  programme 
of  his  philosophical  system;  but  nine  years  earlier  he 
had  printed  a  volume  entitled  "  Social  Statics,  or  the 
conditions  essential  to  human  happiness  specified  and 
the  first  of  them  developed."  Lyell  had  been  for  a 
long  while  the  leading  authority  of  England  in  the 
science  of  palaeontology,  but  the  startling  book  in  which 
he  demonstrated  the  antiquity  of  man  did  not  appear 
until  five  years  after  the  publication  of  the  Origin  of 
Species.  This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  far-reach- 
ing and  all-pervading  influences  which  proceeded  from 
these  writings,  nor  to  dwell  on  the  controversies  they 
evoked,  such  as  those  with  which  we  are  familiar  be- 
tween Agassiz  and  Gray,  but  I  bring  these  instances 
forward  as  indications  of  the  extraordinary  intellectual 
vitality  of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  of 
the  changes  in  human  thought  of  which  this  school  has 
been  the  watchful  observer. 

I  have  the  authority  of  an  eminent  naturalist  for  say- 
ing that  "  The  most  significant  aspect  of  this  movement 
is  the  general  recognition,  by  all  thoughtful  men,  of 

7 


the  proof  which  was  afforded,  by  the  progress  of  dis- 
covery, of  the  truth  that  the  unity  of  all  nature  is  or- 
derly, and  discoverable  by  scientific  methods." 

In  the  domain  of  physics,  changes  have  occurred 
almost  as  remarkable.  The  doctrine  of  the  conserva- 
tion and  correlation  of  forces,  beginning  with  a  deter- 
mination of  the  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat,  was 
suggested  and  developed  between  the  years  1842  and 
1862  by  Mayer,  Grove  and  Joule.  Faraday  was  then 
at  the  zenith  of  his  powers,  Helmholtz  and  Kelvin  at 
the  outset  of  their  illustrious  careers.  But  it  was  as  far 
back  as  1830  when  Joseph  Henry,  then  a  schoolmaster 
in  a  country  town,  reached  those  discoveries  in  electro- 
magnetism  which  made  the  telegraph  a  proximate  cer- 
tainty and  brought  into  the  intercourse  of  mankind  a 
revolution  almost  as  great  as  the  primitive  invention 
attributed  to  Cadmus.  Spectrum  analysis,  that  power- 
ful agency  which  reveals  the  constituents  of  incandes- 
cent bodies,  even  the  chemical  and  physical  nature  of 
the  remotest  stars,  was  then  unknown. 

Likewise  glance  at  mathematics  and  astronomy  fifty 
years  ago.  Laplace  had  been  dead  for  over  twenty 
years;  Gauss  was  living  in  an  advanced  age;  Sir  Wm. 
Rowan  Hamilton  had  announced  but  had  not  published 
the  new  calculus — Quaternions — which  was  to  give  him 
high  rank  with  the  greatest  mathematicians;  Cayley, 
Sylvester,  and  Hermite  were  at  the  portal  of  those  in- 
vestigations which  have  made  their  names  illustrious  in 
the  science  "  which  never  takes  a  backward  step."  The 
abstract  reasonings  of  such  men  are  beyond  the  appre- 
hension and  appreciation  of  minds  non-mathematical; 
but  this  is  not  true  of  astronomy,  for  every  human  be- 
8 


ing,  the  wayfarer  and  the  shepherd,  as  truly  as  the  phi- 
losopher, is  interested  in  the  progress  of  celestial  science. 
No  purely  scientific  discovery  within  our  memory  has 
made  such  an  impression  on  the  popular  mind  as  that 
of  the  planet  Neptune,  whose  existence,  foretold  by 
Adams  and  Leverrier,  was  demonstrated  on  the  night  of 
September  23,  1846.  Then  the  astronomer  of  Berlin 
turned  his  lens,  by  request,  to  the  predicted  place,  and 
first  recognized  as  a  planet  that  vast  orb  which  had 
been  circling  in  solemn  silence  for  countless  ages  thou- 
sands of  million  miles  from  the  sun.  This  superb 
achievement,  like  the  torch  bearer  of  Aurora's  car,  was 
the  precursor  of  a  long  series  of  splendid  additions  to 
astronomical  science,  as  well  as  of  great  improvements 
in  the  telescope  and  of  great  endowments  for  astro- 
nomical research. 

But  unexpectedly  a  new  astronomy  has  supple- 
mented the  old,  and  celestial  physics  is  standing  side  by 
side  with  celestial  mechanics  as  the  interpreter  of  the 
mysteries  of  the  universe.  Surprising  as  was  the  revela- 
tion of  Neptune,  wonderful  as  are  the  maps  of  the 
heavens,  and  the  calling  of  the  stars  by  their  names, 
it  is  more  remarkable  that  astronomy  can  now  tell  us  the 
constituents  of  every  heavenly  body.  This  is  the 
triumph  of  spectrum  analysis,  already  mentioned,  the 
contribution  of  chemistry  and  physics  to  astronomy,  an 
inevitable  evolution  from  the  researches  of  Kirchhoff 
and  Bunsen,  in  1859. 

I  am  in  danger  of  multiplying  these  fascinating  allu- 
sions, and  of  trying  to  give  in  a  single  page  an  abstract 
of  a  cyclopaedia,  which  would  be  the  task  of  Icarus, 
predestined  to  fall;  but  mention  must  be  made,  if  it  be 

9 


only  with  a  word,  of  recent  advances  in  some  other  de- 
partments of  science.  Think  of  geology  including 
palaeontology  on  one  side  and  petrography  on  the  other; 
of  chemistry,  with  its  revelation  of  new  elements,  lead- 
ing up  to  the  Neptune-like  discovery  of  Argon,  and  with 
its  innumerable  contributions  to  agriculture,  metallurgy 
and  pharmacy,  to  color,  food  and  flavor;  of  engineering 
and  mechanics  with  their  acquired  control  of  force  and 
matter,  in  ordnance,  ships,  dynamos,  engines,  bridges, 
tunnels  and  air  ships;  of  the  sciences  of  metallurgy, 
meteorology,  geodesy,  exploration,  navigation  and  aero- 
statics. It  is  truly  a  half  century  of  marvels  proceeding 
from  the  patient,  unrequited,  unseen  pursuit  of  science 
by  men  of  extraordinary  ability  and  of  absolute  con- 
centration on  the  advancement  of  knowledge.  By  com- 
mon consent,  it  is  the  age  of  electricity,  and  the  history 
of  that  single  branch  of  science  verifies  a  saying 
of  Faraday's,  which  was  early  adopted  in  this  school, 
"There  is  nothing  so  prolific  in  utilities  as  abstractions." 
But  every  science  has  made  its  contributions  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  race,  and  every  advance  has  made 
more  obvious  the  mystery  of  existence  and  increased 
the  humility  of  man  as  he  thinks  of  that  which  tran- 
scends his  reason. 

As  *'  knowledge  grows  from  more  to  more," 
So  "  more  of  reverence  with  us  dwells." 

Different  minds  will  place  different  estimates  on  the 
intellectual  accomplishments  of  these  recent  years.  In 
ordinary  conversation  the  men  of  the  mart  will  point 
to  an  Eiffel  tower,  a  suspension  bridge,  a  continental 
express  train,  a  man-of-war,  an  Atlantic  cable,  or  a  great 

10 


exhibition.  On  the  other  hand  scholars  of  the  lamp, 
like  Freeman,  will  give  precedence  to  the  comparative 
method  of  study  now  employed  in  history,  language, 
politics,  economics  and  religion.  But  in  this  assembly 
may  I  suggest  that  perhaps  the  greatest  triumphs  of  the 
intellect  during  the  last  half -century  are  these  five  con- 
tributions to  human  knowledge:  The  establishment  of 
the  principles  of  evolution;  the  establishment  of  the 
principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy;  the  develop- 
ment of  mathematical  science  and  its  application  to 
physics,  mechanics,  electricity  and  astronomy;  the  de- 
velopment of  spectrum  analysis  and  the  consequent  dis- 
coveries respecting  light  and  electricity;  and  the  dis- 
covery of  the  nature  and  functions  of  bacteria,  and  of 
their  influence,  for  weal  or  woe,  upon  living  organisms. 

To  these  may  be  added,  perhaps,  the  birth  of  experi- 
mental psychology,  a  child  so  young  that  though  it 
seems  to  belong  to  the  family  of  Hercules,  its  strength 
has  not  been  fairly  tested. 

It  is  time  to  turn  from  the  aspects  of  science  to  those 
of  education.  Prior  to  the  days  of  Faraday,  Darwin 
and  Huxley,  of  Agassiz,  Dana  and  Whitney,  the  classics 
held  their  sway  and  controlled  with  almost  absolute 
supremacy  the  liberal  education  of  England  and  the 
United  States.  The  benefits  of  instruction  in  Latin  and 
Greek,  enormous  as  they  were,  received  exaggerated 
praise,  in  spite  of  the  dictum  of  Sir  Wm.  Hamilton, 
which  was  often  quoted,  that  nothing  brought  the  clas- 
sics into  such  disrepute  as  requiring  them  of  every 
student.  To  enforce  this  statement  it  is  not  necessary 
to  appeal  to  the  opponents  of  classical  culture.  The 
words  of  a  renowned  scholar,  distinguished  for  his 

11 


knowledge  of  antiquity  and  his  love  of  the  ancient  land- 
marks, tell  the  story  well.  The  classical  revival,  says 
Freeman,  "  in  all  its  forms  and  stages,  fostered  the  idea 
that  the  languages,  the  arts,  the  history  of  Greece  and 
Eome  at  certain  stages  of  their  being,  were  the  only 
forms  of  language,  art  and  history  which  deserved  the 
study  of  cultivated  men.  It  led  to  the  belief,  not  per- 
haps fully  put  forth  in  words,  but  none  the  less  prac- 
tically acted  on,  that  those  two  languages,  and  all  that 
belonged  to  them,  had  some  special  privilege  above  all 
others — that  the  studies  which  were  honored  by  the 
ambiguous  name  of  f  classical '  were  fenced  off  from 
all  others  by  some  mysterious  barrier — that  they  formed 
a  sacred  precinct  which  the  initiated  alone  might  enter 
and  from  which  the  profane  were  to  be  jealously  shut 
out.  Such  a  state  of  feeling,  a  feeling  which  has  even 
now  far  from  died  out,  could  not  fail  to  lead  to  mere 
contempt,  and  thereby  to  mere  ignorance  of  everything 
beyond  the  sacred  pale.  And  what  is  more,  it  hindered 
any  knowledge  of  the  true  nature  of  those  things  which 
were  allowed  a  place  within  the  sacred  pale.  It  led  to 
a  cutting  off  of  so-called  l  classical '  studies  from  all 
ordinary  human  pursuits  and  human  interests." 

To  a  very  considerable  extent  this  reproach,  if  it  is  a 
reproach,  is  likewise  American.  The  opportunities,  the 
honors,  the  pleasures  and  the  rewards  of  a  liberal  edu- 
cation were  opened  during  the  first  half  of  this  century 
to  those  only  who  had  been  disciplined  in  the  ancient 
languages,  and  this  discipline  was  continued  through 
the  greater  part  of  the  subsequent  non-elective  curric- 
ulum. To  verify  this  remark  it  is  only  necessary  to 
examine  the  catalogues  of  the  leading  colleges  of  this 
12 


country  during  the  first  five  decades  of  this  century,  or 
to  read  the  defense  of  classical  studies  annually  printed 
by  Yale  College  for  twenty-five  years  prior  to  1854. 
Spasmodic  efforts  were  made  for  the  foundation  of  new 
courses,  but  virtually  West  Point  and  Troy  were  the 
only  established  places  in  this  country  for  good  tech- 
nical instruction  so  late  as  1847.  Whitney  was  so  con- 
scious that  the  men  of  letters,  in  the  group  to  which 
he  belonged,  depreciated  the  aims  and  objects  of  scien- 
tific education  that  he  wrote  a  pamphlet  which  silenced, 
if  it  did  not  remove,  the  prejudices  of  all  who  read  it. 
Its  reperusal  at  this  time  is  invigorating. 

But  for  twenty  years  previous  to  1847  a  force  had 
been  at  work  in  a  little  country  town  of  Germany  des- 
tined to  affect  the  education  of  Christendom;  and  at 
the  same  time  to  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  human 
knowledge,  first  in  chemistry  and  the  allied  branches, 
then  in  every  other  one  of  the  natural  sciences.  The 
place  .was  Giessen;  the  inventor,  Liebig;  the  method,  a 
laboratory  for  instruction  and  research.  Dr.  Welch  has 
lately  reviewed  in  an  address  at  Philadelphia  the  results 
which  proceeded  from  this  innovation  of  a  genius. 

Another  event  contributed  to  the  expansion  of  educa- 
tion. About  the  middle  of  the  century  the  first  World's 
Fair,  held  in  London,  had  revealed  to  English-speaking 
people  the  increasing  supremacy  of  continental  nations 
in  those  branches  of  industry  which  depend  upon  the 
applications  of  science.  The  British  were  alarmed.  The 
papers  of  the  day,  and  especially  the  London  Times, 
were  vigorous  in  calling  for  improved  methods  of  public 
instruction,  and  especially  for  the  better  guidance  of 
chemists,  miners,  engineers,  geologists  and  manufactur- 

13 


ers,  for  all  who  aspired  to  be  leaders  in  the  technical 
pursuits  upon  which  the  prosperity  of  the  British  Em- 
pire depended.  Hence  in  close  connection,  though  not  in 
this  order,  came  the  department  of  science  and  art  and 
the  museums  at  South  Kensington,  the  great  provincial 
colleges  of  science,  the  Cavendish  laboratory  at  Cam- 
bridge, the  new  museum  at  Oxford,  and  other  note- 
worthy advances.  From  that  day  to  this  scientific  edu- 
cation in  England  has  been  making  progress,  although 
Germany  and  France  and  other  continental  states  still 
hold  their  ascendency;  for  now,  as  then,  the  laboratories 
of  those  countries  and  the  abundant  encouragement 
given  to  scientific  research  by  their  governments  excite 
the  admiration  of  our  mother  country  and  ourselves. 

Is  it  not  apparent  that  in  the  middle  of  this  century 
responsibility  for  the  advancement  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge  was  wider  and  deeper  than  ever  before? 
Imbued  by  this  spirit  of  the  times,  Smithson  made  his 
famous  bequest,  soon  to  be  followed  by  similar  and 
greater  gifts  from  others,  a  splendid  line  of  endowments, 
which  has  spread  with  advancing  civilization  from 
Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  land  of  the  Golden  Gate. 

Geographical  discoveries,  previously  confined  to  islands 
and  coasts,  or  to  narrow  lines  in  desert  or  barbarous 
countries,  now  began  to  assume  continental  magnitude. 
Earth,  air  and  sea,  and  even  celestial  space,  were  called 
upon  to  reveal  their  secrets.  The  importance  of  accu- 
rate measurements  having  now  been  completely  estab- 
lished, instruments  of  precision  became  more  perfect, 
complex  and  varied,  produced  by  a  noble  army  of  in- 
ventors who  never  dishonored  the  drafts  which  were 
made  by  science  on  the  bank  of  mechanical  ingenuity. 
14 


Mathematics  formed  a  close  alliance  with  construction 
and  invention.  Improvements  in  lenses,  and  their 
mountings,  as  shown  in  telescopes,  microscopes  and 
many  other  -scopes,  and  the  invention  of  concave  gra- 
tings, were  among  the  fruits  of  this  alliance.  Astron- 
omy, physics,  mechanics  and  engineering  renewed  their 
strength.  Natural  history  went  heyond  the  limitations 
of  system.  Publications  were  multiplied;  new  asso- 
ciations were  formed,  national  and  international.  Spec- 
ialization took  the  leadership,  and  before  Humboldt 
died,  the  era  of  general  scholarship  was  past,  the  new 
era  was  fairly  under  way. 

In  all  this  progress  the  dominant  note  has  been  the 
advancement  of  science  and  not  the  accumulation  of 
wealth;  truth  and  not  personal  gain.  Why  did  Darwin 
and  Dana  engage  in  intellectual  toil  in  the  intervals  of 
physical  disability?  Why  did  Faraday  abandon  "  com- 
mercial work"  at  the  moment  when  it  promised  great 
returns?  Why  had  Agassiz  "no  time  for  money  mak- 
ing "  ?  Certainly  not  because  they  despised  the  ease  of 
life,  but  because  personal  gain  was  nothing  compared 
with  the  study  of  nature  and  the  advancement  of  knowl- 
edge. Wisdom  was  more  than  gold.  Moreover,  an 
unselfish  desire  to  enlarge  the  welfare  of  mankind  has 
been  a  powerful  stimulus  to  the  ablest  men.  If  I  name 
the  discoveries  of  anaesthetics  and  antiseptics,  with  the 
subordinate  yet  very  significant  evolution  of  cocaine,  the 
applications  of  electricity,  the  improvements  in  hydro- 
graphy and  in  navigation,  and  the  growth  of  preventive 
medicine  and  the  science  of  hygiene,  and  the  alleviations 
of  surgery,  you  will  be  reminded  that  science  repays 
with  ample  usury  the  advances  made  to  her  account. 

15 


OF  TRH 

TTifCr  Tty-^,^ 


In  this  splendid  epoch  of  intellectual  progress,  bril- 
liant and  memorable  as  the  revival  of  letters,  the  early 
days  of  the  Sheffield  School  were  passed.  An  alchemist 
looking  on  might  have  asked  what  philosopher's  stone 
could  produce  that  amount  of  the  precious  metals  which 
would  be  indispensable  for  the  success  of  a  school  de- 
voted to  such  aims;  but  his  brother,  the  astrologer, 
casting  the  horoscope,  would  have  replied  that  resolution 
can  do  more  than  gold,  and  enthusiasm  than  much 
fine  silver. 

Thus  we  reach  the  conclusion  that  this  celebration  is 
significant,  because,  among  the  institutions  created 
during  the  last  half  century  for  the  promotion  of  scien- 
tific research  and  education,  the  Sheffield  Scientific 
School  of  Yale  College  has  held  an  honorable  place.  It 
is  this  relation  to  the  progress  of  human  development 
that  gives  importance  to  the  day  of  small  things  and 
dignity  to  transactions,  which  by  themselves  might  be 
insignificant  were  they  not  governed  by  enlightened 
views,  so  presented,  advocated  and  maintained  that  their 
influence  has  been  powerful. 

As  I  proceed  to  speak  of  the  organization  of  this 
school  I  shall  not  attempt  to  distribute  the  laurels 
among  those  who  took  the  leading  parts,  but  one  of 
them,  Benjamin  Silliman,  long  the  scientific  Nestor  of 
this  community,  dear  "  Uncle  Ben,"  admired  and  hon- 
ored, is  entitled  to  our  first  grateful  mention,  not  only 
because  of  his  power  of  interesting  the  public,  and  his 
perseverance  in  maintaining  the  American  Journal  of 
Science,  but  for  his  personal  instruction,  during  many 
years,  of  unenrolled  young  men  who  enjoyed  the  limited 
opportunities  of  his  primitive  laboratory  and  the  bene- 

16 


fits  of  a  great,  then  unrivaled,  collection  of  minerals. 
Silliman  had  prepared  the  way  for  the  School  of  Ap- 
plied Chemistry,  and  Woolsey  becoming  president  of  the 
college,  fresh  from  studies  abroad,  caused  the  scheme  to 
be  so  broadened  that  it  became  the  Department  of 
Philosophy  and  the  Arts,  akin  in  scope  and  spirit, 
though  not  equal  in  resources  to  the  great  foundations 
of  Europe,  like  Bonn,  Gottingen  and  Berlin,  with  which 
he  was  familiar.  It  must  have  been  a  great  satisfaction 
to  the  revered  ex-president,  nearly  thirty  years  after- 
wards, to  utter,  on  a  public  occasion,  these  words,  doubly 
valued  by  his  hearers,  because  they  came  from  one  who 
knew  the  circumstances  and  from  one  who  was  always 
guarded  in  the  bestowal  of  praise.  "From  the  first," 
he  said,  "the  professors  have  struggled  against  proba- 
bilities. They  have  worked  by  faith.  They  have  aimed 
to  have  a  school,  sink  or  swim,  worthy  of  the  science  of 
this  country.  As  a  result,  I  think  there  is,  confessedly, 
no  other  school  of  this  character,  in  this  country,  which 
is  on  a  level  with  this.  I  would  give  equal  honor  to  the 
devotion  of  the  professors  and  to  the  munificence  of  the 
giver." 

Here  let  me  remind  you  of  a  fact  not  generally  known 
though  clearly  recorded.  As  far  back  as  1814  resident 
graduates  were  enrolled  as  a  distinct  class  on  the  Yale 
catalogue,  and  in  1819  and  1820  the  numbers  so  en- 
rolled were  thirty  and  thirty-one.  This  shows  that  the 
beginning  of  graduate  studies  in  this  University  ante- 
dates by  more  than  thirty  years  the  department  of 
Philosophy  and  the  Arts. 

In  1846,  two  young  men,  devoted  to  applied  science 
and  ready  for  careers,  were  made  by  Yale  "  university 

17 


professors."  It  is  a  striking  coincidence,  that  Harvard 
and  Yale,  generous  and  friendly  aspirants  for  the  leader- 
ship, caught  the  laboratory  quickstep  at  almost  the  same 
time.  The  gift  of  Abbott  Lawrence,  made  in  1847,  led 
at  once  to  the  appointment  of  the  great  Agassiz  and 
almost  immediately  to  the  opening  of  a  chemical 
laboratory,  organized  by  Professor  Horsford,  a  pupil  of 
Liebig. 

One  of  the  two  young  professors  at  New  Haven, 
having  an  inherent  love  of  agriculture,  and  an  ex- 
cellent preparation  in  Edinburgh  and  Utrecht,  was  qual- 
ified to  direct  a  chemical  laboratory  and  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  the  sciences  pertaining  to  agriculture.  Pro- 
fessor John  P.  Norton  was  fully  possessed  by  the  spirit 
of  modern  science  and  soon  gathered  around  him  a 
company  of  young  chemists,  some  of  whom  were  des- 
tined to  win  the  highest  distinctions,  three  of  them  still 
students,  colleagues  and  teachers,  now  present  with  us, 
strong  in  attainments,  influence  and  character,  stronger 
still  in  the  affection  of  their  pupils. 

The  second  of  the  original  appointments  was  that  of 
Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.,  a  man  of  enthusiasm  and  en- 
ergy, and  of  boundless  hospitality,  intellectual  and 
social,  whose  name  and  address,  quick  sympathies  and 
interest  in  applied  science  gave  promise  of  great  useful- 
ness. The  labors  of  both  these  men  were  soon  inter- 
rupted. One  was  diverted  to  other  fields  of  activity  in 
Louisville  and  New  York;  the  other  died  at  the  thresh- 
old of  his  fame.  I  have  often  thought  what  a  differ- 
ence it  would  have  made  if  the  school  had  then  been  en- 
dowed. Norton,  trying  to  do  double  work  at  Albany 
and  New  Haven,  fell  a  victim  to  the  exposures  of  winter 

18 


travel;  and  Silliman  was  led  to  seek  remunerative  occu- 
pations elsewhere.  Those  were  the  days  of  which  Louns- 
bury  thus  speaks:  "  The  college  had  no  money  to  give, 
but  even  if  it  had  it  is  more  than  doubtful  if  it  would 
have  given  it.  No  one  at  that  time,  however  enthusias- 
tic, ever  dreamed  of  the  supreme  importance  which  the 
natural  sciences  were  soon  to  assume  in  every  well-de- 
vised system  of  education.  The  impression  prevailed 
that  chemistry,  like  virtue,  must  be  its  own  reward." 

The  youth  of  this  school  was  spent  like  a  f  oundling's, 
its  future  was  precarious.  At  length,  new  forces  came 
to  its  support.  Certain  obstacles,  elsewhere  encoun- 
tered, made  it  easy  for  Professor  William  A.  Norton  to 
bring  to  Yale  his  classes  in  civil  engineering,  and  he  was 
followed  by  his  colleague,  Professor  John  A.  Porter, 
then  devoted  to  chemistry.  These  appointments  were 
invigorating.  Norton  was  an  admirable  teacher,  well 
trained  at  West  Point,  painstaking,  accurate,  thorough, 
well  acquainted  with  the  progress  of  his  favorite  science 
and  always  commanding  students  of  ability.  Porter, 
who  had  been  a  pupil  of  Liebig,  was  a  man  of  letters  as 
well  as  of  science,  a  poet,  philosopher  and  patriot,  thor- 
oughly believing  in  the  New  Education,  as  President 
Eliot  named  it,  and  ready  to  enlarge  by  the  various  in- 
fluences at  his  command  the  scope  of  the  Scientific 
School,  of  which  he  became  for  several  years  the  able 
and  eloquent  exponent. 

Eapid  growth  followed,  due  chiefly  to  one  man  whose 
name,  before  all  others,  is  on  our  lips  as  the  founder  of 
this  school,  Joseph  E.  Sheffield.  It  is  needless  to  re- 
count the  steps  from  a  gift  of  five  thousand  dollars  to 
the  amount  of  a  million,  with  which  we  are  familiar. 

19 


Naturally,  the  school  looked  up  to  him  as  a  father,  and 
asked  permission  to  bear  his  name.  He  consented  with 
reluctance,  but  he  never  forgot  the  child  once  adopted, 
and  in  the  final  distribution  of  his  estate,  made  it  equal 
with  his  sons  and  daughters.  The  year  of  christening 
was  1860. 

Mr.  Sheffield  was  a  man  whom  future  generations,  like 
the  present,  may  delight  to  acknowledge  and  honor  as 
a  founder.  Nothing  will  ever  be  revealed  about  him 
that  his  school  will  wish  to  cover.  On  the  contrary,  if 
those  who  knew  him  best  would  utter  what  they  know, 
the  world  would  admire  even  more  than  it  does  now  the 
sagacity,  the  modesty,  the  consideration  and  the  unself- 
ishness of  our  great  benefactor.  His  liberality  grew 
with  the  growth  of  the  school.  It  was  shown  in  little 
things  and  in  great;  in  the  payment  of  current  bills,  in 
the  provision  of  large  funds.  "  I  get  my  reward  every 
day  as  I  look  out  upon  that  workshop,"  was  the  answer 
that  he  made  to  an  expression  of  gratitude.  "  No  in- 
vestment pays  me  so  well,"  was  another  of  his  remarks. 
"I  wish  you  to  bear  in  mind,"  he  once  said  to  Pro- 
fessor Brush,  "that  you  have  never  asked  me  for  a 
dollar."  Yet  with  all  this  growing  interest,  and  with 
his  readiness  to  listen  to  all  the  inside  history  of  the 
school,  he  never  to  the  slightest  degree  interfered  with 
its  affairs.  He  trusted  the  governing  board.  He  knew 
more  intimately  than  any  member  of  the  corporation, 
the  plans,  the  wants,  the  success  and  the  limitations  of 
the  school,  and  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability  he  contrib- 
uted to  its  maintenance.  An  intimacy  which  con- 
tinued for  more  than  twenty  years  between  the  chief 
executive  of  the  school  and  its  nearest  friend  was  never 
20 


clouded  by  a  moment's  disagreement.  His  only  regrets 
were  the  limitations  of  his  resources.  To  all  these  en- 
gaging traits  must  be  added  the  remembrance  of  his 
strong  intellect,  his  comprehensive  charity,  his  integ- 
rity, gentleness  and  faith.  Happy  the  school  that  can 
bestow  love  as  well  as  gratitude  upon  the  memory  of  its 
chief  benefactor. 

Such  example  was  contagious.  No  one  was  surprised 
when  neighbors,  townsmen  and  friends  at  a  distance, 
one  after  another,  in  many  successive  years,  enlarged 
the  endowment.  Farnam,  the  life-long  colleague  of 
Sheffield;  Norton,  the  father  of  the  agriculturist; 
Wheeler,  an  enthusiastic  graduate;  English,  senator  and 
governor,  promoter  of  studies  in  law,  history  and  sci- 
ence; Phelps,  whose  gateway  adorns  the  campus;  Win- 
chester, founder  of  the  Astronomical  Observatory,  who, 
like  "  the  embattled  farmers  "  at  Concord,  has  "  fired  a 
shot  heard  around  the  world/'  and  whose  widow  has 
given  to  the  school  one  of  its  most  important  halls; 
Collier,  who  perpetuated,  by  a  fund,  the  memory  of  his 
departed  brother;  and  a  lady  of  Liverpool,  Mrs.  Higgin, 
who  established  a  professorship;  besides  Fellowes,  Board- 
man,  Sampson,  Dodge,  and  many  more.  By  their  en- 
couragement the  school  was  doubly  strengthened,  for 
during  the  lifetime  of  its  chief  benefactor  every  such 
gift  brought  another  from  him.  Since  his  day,  the 
munificence  of  Mrs.  Winchester  and  the  bequest  of  Mr. 
Fayerweather  are  indications  that  new  friends  have 
arisen  to  strengthen  these  foundations. 

The  relations  of  the  school  to  the  State  began  after 
the  Federal  Government,  by  the  Morrill  Act  of  1862, 
distributed  among  all  the  states  a  certain  amount  of 

21 


land-scrip  for  the  promotion  of  scientific  education. 
Connecticut  gave  the  income  of  its  portion  to  the 
Sheffield,  and  although  the  amount  annually  received 
from  this  source  was  not  large,  it  seemed  so,  and  was 
accepted  as  a  token  of  public  confidence  most  timely 
and  encouraging.  This  disposition  was  good  for  the 
State  and  good  for  the  College,  and  fully  justified  the 
action  of  Governor  Buckingham  and  those  who  con- 
curred with  him  in  advocating  this  appropriation.  A 
long  line  of  governors  from  his  time  onward  testified 
to  the  value  of  such  an  arrangement.  Its  termination, 
after  almost  thirty  years  of  harmonious  union,  is  much 
to  be  regretted  among  the  unfortunate  annals  of 
divorce. 

Soon  after  the  reception  of  this  grant,  several  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  entered  upon  an  educational  cam- 
paign which  can  hardly  be  brought  to  mind,  in  a  retro- 
spect of  this  long  interval,  without  provoking  a  smile  at 
the  enthusiasm  of  youth  and  at  the  "  expulsive  power  of 
a  new  affection."  The  principal  towns  of  the  State 
were  visited,  and  the  chief  men  of  the  tribes  were 
assembled  to  hear  of  the  new  education.  Sometimes 
in  lecture  rooms,  frequently  in  private  parlors,  once  in 
a  court  house,  once  in  the  Governor's  room  at  Hartford, 
and  once  in  a  fire-engine  room,  the  story  was  told  with 
the  earnestness  of  conviction,  if  not  with  the  graces  of 
eloquence,  and  with  the  certainty  not  of  history  but  of 
prophecy.  Dana,  a  constant  friend,  had  inaugurated 
the  campaign  some  years  before  by  a  public  address. 
Whitney's  "Aim  and  Object "  was  distributed  freely  as  a 
campaign  document,  and  the  newspapers,  always  re- 
sponsive to  the  claims  of  the  school,  echoed  these  pro- 

22 


fessorial  utterances  in  villages  and  by-ways.  The 
school  did  not  reap  much  money  from  the  farms  or 
mills,  but  it  made  hosts  of  friends,  whose  favor  has 
never  departed.  One  of  the  most  valued  was  the  re- 
vered Horace  Bushnell,  and  Governor  Hawley  was 
another. 

But  why  should  further  extracts  be  read  from  the 
book  of  Chronicles?  Let  us  rather  consider  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  circumstances,  gifts,  sacrifices,  labors, 
methods  and  suggestions  which  have  made  the  Sheffield 
School. 

From  the  beginning  onward  this  institution  has  been 
a  department  of  a  university,  of  a  university  which  never 
suffered  its  love  of  letters  to  blind  its  eyes  to  the  value 
of  science.  In  the  days  of  closely  restricted  income, 
during  the  first  half  of  the  century,  chemistry,  mine- 
ralogy, geology,  botany,  mathematics,  physics,  meteo- 
rology and  astronomy  were  taught  in  Yale.  Nor  will 
any  one  think  that  scientific  research  was  undervalued 
if  he  recalls  the  preparation  of  Dana's  Mineralogy,  the 
light  that  was  thrown  on  meteoric  showers,  the  studies 
of  the  aurora,  and  of  the  zodiacal  light,  and  the  search 
for  an  intra-mercurial  planet.  Very  different  would 
have  been  the  Sheffield  record  if  it  were  not  associated 
with  the  fame,  the  fortune  and  the  followers  of  a 
greater  alma  mater.  Substantial  advantages  were  be- 
stowed by  the  mother  upon  her  child — the  use  of  the 
library  and  of  the  cabinets  of  mineralogy  and  geology. 
The  Peabody  Museum,  the  Winchester  Observatory, 
with  its  far-famed  heliometer,  and  the  Street  School  of 
the  Fine  Arts  shed  their  light  like  the  sun,  on  all  the 
university,  but  the  gift  of  George  Peabody  especially 

23 


contributed  to  the  growth  of  a  school  in  which  mine- 
ralogy, geology  and  zoology  were  prominent  subjects  of 
instruction. 

Still  Sheffield  has  not  been  held  by  the  leading 
strings  of  its  mother.  It  has  had  a  large  amount  of  in- 
dependence. Its  funds,  buildings,  appointments  have 
been  its  own.  The  professors  have  been  its  governing 
board,  controlling  its  courses  and  its  funds,  subject  to 
the  oversight  of  the  President  and  Fellows.  On  one 
occasion,  at  least,  the  faculty  asked  permission  of  the 
astonished  corporation  to  reduce  their  own  salaries,  and 
the  request  was  granted! 

Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  no  "  conflict  of  studies  " 
has  been  heard  of;  no  hostility  between  science  and 
letters;  no  "  warfare "  between  science  and  religion. 
The  Sheffield  School  has  always  stood  for  the  idea  of  a 
liberal  education  in  which  scientific  studies  should  pre- 
dominate, but  in  which  a  moderate  amount  of  Latin 
and  of  modern  languages  is  required;  history  and  eco- 
nomics are  also  taught.  It  is  memorable  that  for  a  long 
period  the  greatest  of  American  philologists  was  the 
daily  instructor  in  French  and  German;  and  that  the 
most  learned  study  ever  made  of  "  Dan  Chaucer  and  his 
well  of  English  undefyled  "  proceeded  from  a  Sheffield 
chair;  and  that  no  American  professorship  of  economics 
or  statistics  has  been  more  prolific  and  stimulating  than 
that  which  was  held  for  many  years  by  one  but  lately 
brought  to  the  end  of  his  career. 

Slight  perturbations  in  the  academic  and  scientific 
orbits  might  interest  a  great  astronomer,  like  Newcomb, 
but  to  the  ordinary  observer  they  were  as  imperceptible 
as  the  influence  of  Neptune  upon  Uranus. 

24 


Dr.  Michael  Foster,  the  English  physiologist,  in  a 
recent  address  has  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
increment  of  human  knowledge  transcends  the  power 
of  man  to  assimilate  it.  This  is  most  obvious  when  a 
course  of  preliminary  education  is  considered.  So 
many  subjects  are  said  to  be  "  of  the  first  importance," 
so  many  are  "  indispensable,"  that,  like  new  wine  in 
old  bottles,  they  have  burst  the  curriculum  of  our 
fathers  and  overtaxed  the  capacities  of  youthful  recipi- 
ents. Elective  systems,  costly,  vexatious  and  antago- 
nistic to  time-honored  traditions,  must  now  be  provided 
in  every  college  and  institute  of  technology.  It  is  one 
of  the  glories  of  the  Sheffield  that  from  the  beginning 
students  have  here  been  permitted  to  choose  a  group  of 
studies,  the  constituents  of  which  were  beyond  their 
choice.  "Freedom,  under  control,"  has  been  the  rule 
of  the  house.  Moreover  these  groups  have  not  been 
set  forth  as  professional  courses,  but  as  ladders  leading 
up  to  special  callings,  as  preliminary  to  modern  pro- 
fessions and  technical  pursuits.  One  of  the  most  ad- 
vantageous of  these  courses  has  been  preliminary  .to 
medicine.  To  follow  the  healing  arts,  which  have  made 
during  the  last  half  century  such  wonderful  advances, 
discipline  is  requisite  in  physics,  chemistry,  physiology, 
with  prolonged  laboratory  practice  and  increasing 
familiarity  with  the  normal  functions  of  organic  life. 
Such  courses  were  projected  here  five  and  twenty  years 
ago,  and  gradually  the  medical  colleges  are  discovering 
their  value.  The  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School,  for 
example,  allows  no  student  to  enter  as  a  candidate  for 
its  four  years'  course  unless  he  has  had  such  a  training, 
substantially,  as  that  here  offered  many  years  ago,  and 

25 


never  so  advantageously  as  now.  Names  mighl  be  cited 
of  eminent  physicians,  leaders  in  physiology,  pathology, 
physiological  chemistry  and  hygiene,  who  received  their 
bent  from  the  preliminary  medical  course  of  the  Shef- 
field School. 

In  the  matter  of  Degrees,  it  is  not  possible  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  requirements  of  the  school  and 
those  of  the  department  of  Philosophy  and  the  Arts, 
nor  is  it  important,  for  the  greater  includes  the  less. 
Certainly  Yale  and  Sheffield  are  entitled  to  the  credit 
of  introducing  among  American  institutions  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  demanding  for  it  a  high  stan- 
dard of  attainments,  and  never  bestowing  the  honor 
(not  in  a  single  case,  so  far  as  I  can  remember)  by  any 
irregular  promotion.  This  degree  has  proved  a  pow- 
erful incentive  to  scholarship  in  this  and  other  univer- 
sities, and  the  list  of  laureati  Yalenses,  beginning,  in 
1861,  with  three  distinguished  names,  soon  followed  by 
one  of  the  highest  renown,  is  a  list  to  be  proud  of.  It  is 
also  noteworthy  that  the  school  has  never  yielded  to 
the  American  tendency  to  multiply  the  forms  of  the 
baccalaureate  degree,  a  multiplication  almost  as  bad 
as  tampering  with  the  coins  of  the  realm. 

A  large  amount  of  freedom  has  been  given  to  the 
students  outside  of  the  halls  of  learning.  Twice  an 
application  was  made  for  places  at  daily  prayers  in  the 
college  chapel,  for  scientific  students;  but  none  were 
provided,  doubtless  because  the  building  by  tradition 
and  in  construction  was  a  collegiate  and  not  a  univer- 
sity chapel,  and  not  because  the  scientific  students  were 
considered  "past  praying  for."  There  has  been  no 
common  table,  no  dormitory,  no  regular  general  assem- 

26 


blies  of  officers  and  students;  on  the  other  hand  there 
have  been  no  rebellions  against  authority,  no  disorder, 
no  hostility  toward  the  faculty,  no  apparent  trend  to- 
ward irregular  life,  no  lack  of  college  spirit. 

In  the  annual  catalogue  for  many  years  the  same 
phrase  has  been  employed  to  express  the  object  of  the 
Sheffield  School.  These  are  the  familiar  words: 

"The  Sheffield  Scientific  School  is  devoted  to  in- 
struction and  researches  in  the  mathematical,  physical 
and  natural  sciences,  with  reference  to  the  promotion 
and  diffusion  of  science,  and  also  to  the  preparation  of 
young  men  for  such  pursuits  as  require  special  pro- 
ficiency in  these  departments  of  learning." 

By  these  double  services  this  school  is  known.  In- 
deed, if  you  would  estimate  the  value  of  any  institution 
of  learning,  measure  its  breadth  and  its  depth;  its 
breadth  as  revealed  in  the  number,  distribution  and 
attainments  of  its  pupils,  by  their  success  and  renown; 
its  depth,  as  shown  by  contributions,  direct  and  indirect, 
made  by  its  faculty  and  graduates  to  the  advancement 
of  knowledge. 

There  is  no  recent  statement  of  the  occupations  of 
Sheffield  graduates;  but  the  brief  phrases  of  the  trien- 
nial, and  an  extended  personal  acquaintance,  in  places 
near  and  remote,  justify  the  following  assertions. 
Nearly  two  thousand  men  have  here  been  graduated 
and  many  more  have  been  well  trained,  according  to 
their  aptitudes,  in  science  and  in  the  applications  of 
science  to  the  useful  arts.  Many  of  them  have  pro- 
ceeded to  higher  degrees,  or  have  entered  at  once  upon 
places  which  led  up  to  a  participation  in  the  construc- 
tion of  public  works,  the  conduct  of  industrial  estab- 

27 


lishments,  the  charge  of  mills,  mines,  surveys  and  ex- 
plorations, and  the  promotion  of  public  health.  Others, 
and  some  of  the  ablest,  have  entered  upon  the  study  of 
medicine.  A  large  number  have  been  called  to  chairs 
of  instruction  and  investigation. 

The  earliest  list  of  graduates  was  prognostic.  Six  of 
the  seven  Bachelors  of  Philosophy  became  teachers, 
one  a  geologist  and  an  explorer  of  the  western  territory, 
one  the  botanist  of  the  California  Geological  Survey, 
and  a  third  one  of  the  leading  mineralogists  of  the  world. 
Go  to  South  Africa  or  to  Japan,  or  to  Turkey,  to  Cali- 
fornia or  any  of  the  trans-Mississippi  States,  inquire 
into  the  work  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey, 
scan  the  membership  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences,  look  at  the  faculty  of  Yale,  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology,  and  of  many  other  col- 
leges, and  you  will  come  at  once  upon  the  Sheffield  men. 

As  an  example  of  their  activity,  a  most  interesting 
story  might  be  appropriately  told,  if  the  time  would 
permit,  respecting  the  adventures  of  a  graduate  of  1862 
and  his  friend,  in  crossing  the  continent  before  the  first 
Pacific  Kailroad  was  built,  of  their  map  of  the  Yosemite, 
and  of  their  mountaineering  in  the  Sierras,  which  cul- 
minated in  the  ascent  of  Mount  Whitney.  Then  came 
the  celebrated  exploration  of  the  fortieth  parallel,  and 
the  subsequent  organization  of  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey,  of  which  this  distinguished  scholar  be- 
came the  first  director.  Such  achievements  belong  to 
the  trophies  of  the  school. 

It  is  never  easy,  in  a  public  assembly,  to  review  the 
progress  of  science  or  to  estimate  individual  achieve- 
ments. Many  important  contributions  have  no  char- 

28 


acteristics  which  are  of  interest  beyond  the  circle  of 
experts,  or  even  intelligible.  The  speaker  is  certainly 
disqualified  from  making  such  a  review  or  from  weigh- 
ing in  a  critical  balance  the  services  of  the  able  men,  his 
personal  friends,  who  have  constituted  the  faculty. 
Their  presence  may  forbid  him  to  utter  their  names; 
yet  he  ventures  to  recall  some  facts  which  are  known 
even  to  the  inexpert  and  to  allude  to  others  which  the 
modesty  of  the  faculty  might  be  disposed  to  hide. 

I  only  allude  to  the  vast  contributions  made  to  science,, 
in  four  of  its  branches,  by  James  D.  Dana,  and  to  the 
extraordinary  scholarship  and  fertility  of  William  D. 
Whitney,  lest  I  appear  to  be  claiming  for  a  part  of  the 
philosophical  department  that  which  belongs  to  the 
whole.  The  professorships  which  they  held — due  to 
one  honored  benefactor — were  independent  of  the 
Scientific  School.  But  no  one  should  forget  that  Dana 
was  for  years  enrolled  on  the  list  of  the  Sheffield  instruc- 
tors, that  his  lectures  and  field  excursions  were  always 
attended  by  Sheffield  students,  and  that  the  impulse 
given  to  the  school,  from  1855  onward,  was  largely  due 
to  the  encouragement  and  co-operation  of  this  great 
naturalist,  whose  personal  strength  was  fortified  by  his 
position  in  the  college  faculty.  Nor  can  we  fail  to 
remember  that  Whitney,  a  scholar  of  distinction  among 
the  scholars  of  the  world,  was  the  daily  teacher,  the 
constant  adviser,  and  the  unfaltering  believer  in  the 
Sheffield  School. 

You  have  been  reminded  that  the  analytical  labora- 
tory, in  the  old  white  dwelling  house  ("  the  lab  "  of  our 
college  slang),  was  the  first,  and  for  a  time  the  only 
"  outward  sign  of  inward  grace  "  which  was  shown  by 

29 


the  new  school;  even  now  the  manifold  activities  of  five 
great  buildings  do  but  magnify  the  importance  of  their 
elder  departed  brother.  With  increasing  vigor  and  un- 
diminished  enthusiasm,  the  laboratory  study  of  chem- 
istry there  begun  has  been  prosecuted  for  fifty  years, 
partly  for  its  own  sake  and  partly  because  of  its  rela- 
tions to  agriculture,  mineralogy,  metallurgy  and  phy- 
siology. 

Consider  agriculture.  These  are  the  days  when  every- 
body is  conscious  that  the  welfare  of  the  country,  per- 
haps the  stability  of  the  government,  is  dependent  upon 
"the  crops,"  but  not  everybody  remembers  when  he 
sees  the  heavily  laden  trains,  the  well  filled  elevators 
and  the  wharves  burdened  with  wheat,  cotton  and 
tobacco,  that  the  national  supplies  are  largely  results  of 
advances  made  by  science.  Every  State  in  the  Union 
now  has  its  college  of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic 
arts.  It  was  not  so  when  Norton  came  to  Yale.  He 
was  a  pioneer  in  the  scientific  agriculture  of  the  United 
States;  and  with  a  longer  life  would  have  accomplished 
much  more;  for  he  knew  how.  He  set  the  pace.  When 
his  mantle  fell  upon  Porter,  a  student  of  Liebig's, 
twenty-six  leading  agriculturists,  from  every  part  of  the 
country,  were  brought  to  New  Haven,  for  a  conference 
of  many  days,  and  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  that 
this  unique,  primeval  example  of  university  extension 
had  a  powerful  influence  in  promoting,  on  right  prin- 
ciples, the  study  of  agriculture.  This  was  in  1860.  It 
was  estimated  that  five  hundred  persons  from  a  distance 
came  here  to  follow  more  or  less  of  these  lectures  and 
discussions.  Consequently,  came  the  national  grant, 
associated  with  the  name  of  Senator  Morrill,  an  enact- 

30 


ment  due  in  no  small  degree  to  influences  here  put 
forth.  From  this  congressional  bounty,  Cornell,  Madi- 
son, Minneapolis,  Berkeley  and  other  universities  of  the 
Western  States  derive  a  considerable  part  of  their 
revenues. 

A  pupil  of  John  P.  Norton's  soon  took  the  leadership 
in  agricultural  chemistry,  and  no  one  has  outstripped 
him  in  the  race.  His  books,  his  suggestions,  his  scien- 
tific memoirs,  his  researches,  and  his  personal  influence 
have  made  the  school  famous.  The  list  of  his  publica- 
tions is  a  long  one,  but  it  is  more  remarkable  when 
tested  by  qualitative  than  by  quantitative  analysis. 
One  of  them,  "How  Crops  Grow,"  is  almost  as  wide- 
spread as  the  vegetation  it  describes.  Like  the  Pil- 
grim's Progress,  it  is  adapted  to  every  clime.  Early  in 
the  seventies  the  author  began  to  advocate  the  estab- 
lishment of  Experimental  Stations,  and  in  due  time 
had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  them  established  through- 
out the  Union,  while  he  became  director  of  that  in 
Connecticut.  This  achievement  alone  reflects  great  dis- 
tinction on  the  Sheffield  School.  If  it  had  done  noth- 
ing but  make  and  uphold  this  idea,  its  cost  would  have 
been  repaid. 

Closely  associated  in  the  promotion  of  scientific  agri- 
culture has  been  a  different  sort  of  mind,  one  whose 
unfailing  resources,  practical  sense,  and  varied  knowl- 
edge sometimes  overshadow  his  ability  as  an  investi- 
gator in  four  important  branches  of  science.  He  was 
long  a  wanderer  on  the  Pacific  slope,  collecting  plants 
and  experience,  climbing  mountains  and  difficulties; 
but  he  returned  to  New  Haven  at  the  regeneration  of 
the  school  in  1864-5  and  his  post-exilian  studies  have 

31 


been  directed  to  heredity,  the  evolution  of  breeds  and 
the  transmission  of  acquired  characters,,  and  to  the  con- 
ditions of  public  health. 

New  Haven  has  been  a  centre  of  mineralogical  en- 
quiry during  the  entire  century.  Its  collections,  which 
began  with  the  famous  candle  box  of  Professor  Silliman, 
were  augmented  by  the  cabinet  of  Colonel  Gibbs,  and 
have  grown  into  the  varied  and  comprehensive  posses- 
sions of  the  Peabody  Museum.  These  collections  in- 
spired the  renowned  treatise  of  James  D.  Dana,  whose 
work  has  been  extended  and  made  more  complete  by 
able  followers  connected  with  this  school.  Important 
contributions  to  the  science  of  mineralogy,  involving  a 
great  amount  of  accurate  discrimination,  were  modestly 
put  forth  year  after  year  by  the  director  of  the  school 
as  supplements  to  Dana's  work.  New  localities  were 
visited,  and  old  localities  were  revisited  always  with 
good  results,  not  only  in  beautiful  specimens,  but  also 
in  positive  contributions  to  science.  His  absorbing 
administrative  duties  have  not  dimmed  his  enthusiasm 
nor  abated  his  energy.  He  is  one  of  those  men,  rare 
at  any  period,  who  carry  on  the  most  special  investiga- 
tions in  their  own  domain,  while  they  show  a  broad 
sympathy  with  other  workers,  and  a  great  capacity  for 
perception,  suggestion,  encouragement  and  aid. 

So  in  geology.  Able  investigators  whose  observations 
and  publications  have  been  important  have  gone  hence 
to  other  institutions;  but  there  is  among  us  an  illustri- 
ous and  world-renowned  investigator  who  has  never 
been  enticed  away  as  a  professor,  but  who  as  an  ex- 
plorer penetrated  regions  before  unknown  in  the  far 
West,  and  who  brought  from  them  treasures  as  marvel- 

32 


cms  as  if  he  had  carried  in  his  hand  the  lamp  of  Alad- 
din. As  a  scientific  writer,  he  has  surpassed  himself 
as  a  scientific  explorer;  for  these  brilliant  discoveries 
were  interpreted  with  masterly  ability  and  patience, 
and  have  been  put  before  the  world  in  the  best  of  form, 
chiefly  at  his  own  expense.  The  fossil  horses,  Hippus, 
and  his  more  ancient  precursors,  with  their  two  toes, 
three  toes  and  four  toes,  ancestors  of  the  racers  of  to- 
day, and  his  "  birds  with  teeth,"  have  become  classical 
illustrations  of  the  evolution  of  higher  animals  and  are 
famous;  but  it  is  not  so  well  known  that  a  thousand 
species  of  extinct  vertebrates  have  been  brought  to  light 
by  this  great  discoverer,  many  of  them  of  the  highest 
significance  in  their  lessons  and  suggestions. 

The  study  of  zoology  has  been  renovated  during  the 
history  of  his  school.  The  value  of  classification  has 
not  depreciated,  while  that  of  embryology,  morphology 
and  physiology  has  become  more  apparent.  The  senior 
biologist  has  extended  his  operations  over  a  vast  area 
and  to  the  uttermost  depths  of  the  ocean.  Modest, 
learned,  patient  and  thorough,  he  has  described  the 
marine  fauna  whose  existence  has  been  brought  to  light 
by  systematic  dredging.  One  hardly  knows  which  is 
the  more  wonderful,  the  limitless  numbers  or  the  varied 
structures  of  new  species  which  he  has  introduced.  An 
able  colleague,  concentrating  his  attention  upon  the 
Crustacea,  though  not  exclusively,  carries  on  and  ex- 
tends the  investigations  which  gave  to  Dana  no  small 
part  of  his  early  renown. 

Nor  was  zoology  the  only  department  of  natural  his- 
tory here  promoted,  for  a  chief  authority  in  one  branch 
of  botanical  science,  including  ferns  and  sea-weeds,  was 

33 


here  distinguished  as  a  collector  and  writer.  This  day 
his  name  is  inscribed  upon  a  tablet  placed  with  his 
books  and  herbarium  in  a  memorial  room. 

In  the  various  branches  of  engineering  science,  civil, 
mechanical  and  dynamical,  the  school  has  always  main- 
tained a  high  reputation.  Long  ago,  the  head  of  this 
department  investigated  with  ability,  ingenuity  and  pa- 
tience the  nature  of  comets  and  the  principles  of  molec- 
ular and  cosmical  physics;  and  at  an  earlier  time,  he 
made  an  important  series  of  investigations  upon  the  set 
of  wood  and  metals  after  transverse  stress. 

In  later  days,  another  accomplished  West  Pointer, 
who  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  suggest  the  can- 
tilever bridge,  was  distinguished  for  his  work  upon 
steam  generators  and  other  prime  motors.  They  were 
followed  by  other  able  engineers  who  were  skillful  in 
the  advancement  of  their  science,  as  well  as  in  its  ap- 
plications. One  of  them  has  produced  a  treatise  upon 
strains  in  framed  structures  (not  to  speak  of  his  other 
writings),  which  is  everywhere  accepted  as  an  original 
authority. 

Whatever  else  is  omitted  from  this  imperfect  sketch, 
I  must  not  fail  to  remind  you  that  improvements  in  the 
instruments  of  research  are  among  the  most  important 
possible  contributions  of  ingenious  men  to  the  advance- 
ment of  knowledge,  and  that  an  improvement  has  here 
been  made  in  the  manufacture  of  lenses — those  pow- 
erful agents  in  every  field  of  optical  enquiry — by  one 
who  was  once  a  student  and  is  now  a  professor  in  this 
institution.  By  a  masterly  study  of  the  mathematical 
laws,  and  a  practical  application  of  those  laws,  which 
called  at  first  for  extraordinary  patience,  methods  of 
34 


producing  lenses  were  devised  which  have  been  pro- 
nounced successful  by  a  company  of  eminent  astron- 
omers, and  have  been  widely  adopted. 

Physiological  chemistry  is  one  of  the  latest  addi- 
tions to  the  subjects  here  taught.  At  once,  in  this 
department,  the  School  has  risen  to  the  foremost 
place.  Nowhere  else  in  this  country,  not  in  many 
European  laboratories,  has  such  work  been  attempted 
and  accomplished  as  is  now  in  progress  on  Hillhouse 
Avenue,  unobserved,  no  doubt,  by  those  who  daily  pass 
the  laboratory  door,  but  watched  with  welcoming  an- 
ticipation wherever  physiology  and  medicine  are  pro- 
secuted in  the  modern  spirit  of  research. 

The  younger  workers  in  this  corps  may  say  that  the 
speaker  is  not  as  familiar  with  the  doings  of  these  later 
years  as  he  is  with  those  of  an  earlier  day.  Unques- 
tionably this  is  so;  but  there  is  this  consolation,  that 
another  voice,  at  another  time,  will  then  do  them  ample 
justice.  Seniores  ad  honores,  juniores  ad  Idbores. 

The  review  to  which  you  have  now  listened  has  sug- 
gested a  gallery  of  portraits  which  ought  to  be  etched 
by  some  Rembrandt  of  the  pencil  or  the  pen  before  the 
characteristics  are  forgotten.  At  the  gateway  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  stand  the  figures  of  Edmund  Burke 
and  Oliver  Goldsmith;  in  the  ante-Chapel  of  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  the  statues  of  Isaac  Newton  and 
Francis  Bacon.  I  would  not  compare  our  worthies  with 
those  of  any  other  college  or  ask  for  them  all  the  por- 
traiture of  marble  and  bronze;  but  I  would  emulate  the 
example  so  common  in  old  countries  of  honoring  in  the 
places  of  their  activity  illustrious  men.  Not  to  mention 
those  now  living,  how  many  pairs  there  are  whose  por- 

35 


traits  might  be  pendants.  Tablets,  busts,  paintings  or 
etchings  should  be  placed  in  honor  of  them  all. 

Whitney  and  Dana,  well  described  by  the  Master  of 
the  House  in  his  memorial  discourse,  are  entitled  to 
distinction  as  philosophers  both,  renowned  throughout 
the  world;  John  P.  Norton  and  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr., 
the  two  young  chemists  who  perceived  so  distinctly  the 
needs  of  the  times;  William  A.  Norton  and  John  A. 
Porter,  who  invigorated  the  school  in  a  critical  moment 
by  their  presence  and  their  instructions;  Lyman  and 
Trowbridge,  promoters  of  the  mechanic  arts,  able  to 
apply  their  mathematical  abilities  to  practical  affairs; 
Eaton,  the  lover  of  nature  and  the  interpreter  of  hidden 
laws  of  life;  and  Walker,  the  far-famed  economist  and 
statistician,  the  soldier  and  the  patriot — all  these  have 
gone  over  to  the  majority,  leaving  the  School  rich  in 
the  remembrance  of  their  abilities,  services,  influence 
and  devotion.  Three  of  the  earliest  class  that  gradu- 
ated are  still  connected  with  it,  strong,  honored  and 
rewarded  for  life-long  adherence  to  noble  ideals. 
Around  them  are  scores  of  juniors,  just  as  vigorous,  just 
as  hopeful,  just  as  gifted  as  those  by  whom  they  have 
been  taught.  May  gratitude  and  honor  reward  them 
all. 

I  have  lately  heard  this  story.  A  certain  king,  insti- 
tuting a  brotherhood,  promised  all  who  would  join  it, 
marble  monuments  which  should  be  placed  in  rows 
upon  the  sides  of  an  aisle.  "  A  hundred  years  hence/7 
he  said,  "you  will  see  that  the  effect  will  be  fine." 
"  Thank  your  majesty,"  said  one  of  the  brothers,  "  the 
King  will  doubtless  be  here  then,  but  I  shall  not."  Sons, 
brethren  and  fathers,  one  hundred  years  hence  many 

36 


monuments  will  adorn  our  halls  and  avenues.  The  effect 
will  be  fine.  We  shall  not  be  here  to  see  them,  but  the 
school,  our  sovereign,  will  be,  and  great  will  be  the  satis- 
faction. 

By  this  course  of  remarks  you  have  been  reminded 
that  this  school  was  founded  in  favorable  environs,  at 
a  propitious  time,  and  also  that  it  is  only  one  of  many 
kindred  agencies  initiated  within  the  period  under  re- 
view. The  Lawrence  Scientific  School  of  Harvard  was 
almost  coeval.  In  quick  succession,  colleges,  depart- 
ments of  science  and  independent  institutes  have  ap- 
peared in  every  State.  Of  these,  not  a  few  have  adopted 
the  methods  here  followed  or  have  called  to  their  sup- 
port those  who  have  here  been  trained.  For  one  such 
institution,  now  celebrating  its  majority,  permit  me  to 
acknowledge  with  filial  gratitude,  the  impulses,  lessons, 
warnings  and  encouragements  derived  from  the  Shef- 
field School,  and  publicly  admit  that  much  of  the  health 
and  strength  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  is  due  to 
early  and  repeated  draughts  upon  the  life-giving  springs 
of  New  Haven. 

This  fellowship  of  scholars  is  one  of  the  greatest 
satisfactions  that  the  teachers,  graduates  and  students 
of  a  college  can  enjoy.  Many  of  us  are  aware  that  we 
are  but  lay  brethren,  servitors  or  postulants,  in  the 
temple  of  science,  disclaiming  even  the  title  of  scien- 
tific men;  but  every  one  of  this  concourse  of  students 
must  be  conscious  that  he  has  dwelt  among  the  brethren, 
and  that  he  can  perform  a  part,  though  it  be  a  very 
humble  part,  in  upholding  and  applying  the  principles 
that  this  school  inculcates  and  for  which  it  stands. 

We  are  enlisted,  commissioned  officers  and  privates, 

37 


in  an  army  which  is  not  restricted  to  provincial  recruits, 
and  which  carries  light  arms  and  heavy  ordnance.  Far 
and  wide  throughout  the  civilized  world;  in  obscurity 
and  poverty,  or  in  stations  of  affluence  and  influence; 
alone  or  in  companies;  with  complex  engines  and  pene- 
trating lenses,  or  with  the  unaided  powers  of  masterly 
brains;  now  searching  the  depths  of  earth  or  ocean,  now 
watching  the  stars  in  their  courses,  now  bending  over 
the  microscope,  the  blow-pipe,  the  alembic,  the  com- 
parator or  the  spectroscope;  and  now  engaged  in  ab- 
stract reasonings,  wondering  that  these  mathematical  re- 
lations have  been  so  long  concealed;  often  disappointed 
or  led  to  merely  negative  results,  and  yet  sometimes 
encouraged  by  an  addition  to  science  or  by  the  percep- 
tion of  a  law  hitherto  unobserved — in  all  their  diversity 
of  powers  and  occupations,  a  noble  corps  is  engaged  in 
overcoming  Ignorance,  that  omnipresent  foe,  and  the 
destructive  cohorts  that  Ignorance  leads.  Fear,  super- 
stition, bigotry,  error,  misery,  weakness,  pain  and  sloth 
are  put  to  flight  by  this  array  of  wisdom  against  folly. 
It  gives  courage  to  remember  that  the  work  of  each 
generation  is  continuous  with  that  of  the  past.  The 
departed  are  with  us.  Thought  as  well  as  matter  is  in- 
destructible. As  the  long  list  of  philosophers,  from 
Pythagoras  and  Aristotle  to  Isaac  Newton,  the  great 
apostle  of  modern  science — qui  genus  humanum  ingenio 
superavit — prepared  the  way  for  the  achievements  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  so  men  now  living  are  heralds 
and  pioneers  of  discoveries  and  conquests  dimly  foreseen 
or  faintly  foretold.  Therefore  it  is  not  strange  that 
while  the  note  of  anxiety  and  despondency  is  heard  in 
other  spheres,  no  pessimistic  cries  proceed  from  our 

38 


ranks  Slowly,  steadily,  surely  the  stately  column 
marches  on,  "never  resting,  never  halting."  Victory 
follows  victory:  light  penetrates  darkness:  Health,  Tem- 
perance, Enjoyment,  Virtue  and  Piety  follow  knowledge. 

Finally  let  me  say,  with  the  solemnity  of  deep  con- 
viction, that  dearer  than  the  fellowship  of  brethren, 
deeper  than  the  love  of  knowledge,  too  precious  to  be 
ever  given  up,  too  sacred  for  careless  speech,  is  the  in- 
vigorating and  inspiring  belief  that  Science  in  its  ulti- 
mate assertions  echoes  the  voice  of  the  living  God. 

You  have  traced  the  evolution  of  an  idea;  you  have 
seen  how  it  has  come  to  pass  that  in  Yale,  as  in  other 
universities,  mathematical,  physical  and  natural  science 
receives  ample  recognition.  At  first,  in  the  Sheffield, 
chemistry  was  alone;  engineering  soon  found  a  place; 
mathematics,  physics  and  astronomy  joined  the  oli- 
garchy; in  due  time,  mineralogy,  geology,  physical  geo- 
graphy, zoology,  botany  and  physiology  found  a  wel- 
come; modern  languages  and  literature,  history  and 
economics,  became  strong  allies.  Not  a  word  was 
spoken  in  disparagement  of  classical  culture,  nor  a  word 
of  religious  controversy. 

You  have  heard  the  story  of  humble  beginnings, 
gradual  expansion,  lofty  ideals,  personal  sacrifices, 
munificent  gifts,  public  services,  abundant  rewards;  and 
also  of  well-founded  hopes,  looking  forward  to  a  second 
half -century  of  life  and  growth.  Can  I  close  with  words 
more  suitable  than  those  of  Laplace,  as  he  reviewed  his 
long  life: — Ce  que  nous  connaissons  est  pen;  ce  que  nous 
ignorons  est  immense. 


39 


WHILE  I  SPOKE  THUS,  THE  SEEDSMAN,  MEMORY, 

SOW'D  MY  DEEP  FURROW'D  THOUGHT  WITH  MANY  A  NAME 

WHOSE  GLORY  WILL  NOT  DIE. 

— Alfred  Tennyson. 


— 


DEPT 


;--"tyaifLCa- 
Berkeley'1 


Gaylamount 
Pamphlet 

Binder 
Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc. 

Stockton,  Calif. 
T.M.  Reg.  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


M116551 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


